Pakistan: Secret trials allowed under Anti-Terrorism (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2026

Summary

The amendment creates a mechanism for trials shrouded in complete secrecy, exceeding permissible exceptions to the right to a fair trial, which includes a public trial, under international human rights law. This amendment deepens concerns regarding past misuse of anti-terrorism laws that has resulted in grave human rights violations. BACKGROUND Since its inception1, Amnesty International has maintained that the ATA violates international law standards and antiterrorism courts established under the act are “unable to provide the same legal safeguards as regular courts” 2.

In recent years, Pakistani authorities have taken steps to further amend the law to consolidate power while discarding human rights safeguards. In Pakistan’s two treaty body reviews by the Human Rights Committee, in 2017 and 2024 respective ly, concerns were raised regarding the ATA. While Pakistani authorities are entitled to address militant attacks inside the country, they are bound to ensure that counterterrorism measures comply with international human rights law 11, including the right to fair trial12.

This amendment, analyzed below, strengthens an already draconian law that has been used to proscribe human rights defenders18 and grassroots movements19 and organizations20 under the Fourth Schedule, arbitrarily detain dissidents through vague charges21, and convict activists to heavy sentences for crimes that should not exist 22. This will have serious implications for Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law, particularly the right to fair trial enshrined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Pakistan ratified in 2010, and article 10A of Pakistan’s constitution which guarantees the right to a fair trial for criminal cases.

General Comment 32 by the UN Human Rights Committee notes that trial by courts with “faceless judges” are often incompatible with international human rights law, especially when these trials are accompanied by other procedural irregularities. The use of “faceless” courts has already begun in Balochistan province and was seen most prominently in the trial of Baloch activists Mahrang Baloch and Sibghat Ullah Shah who were sentence to life imprisonment on 22 June 2026 by an anti-terrorism court30. The public can be excluded from trials in limited circumstances under international human rights law, namely, to ensure the protection of “morals, public order (ordre public) or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires”35.

CONCLUSION The Anti-Terrorism (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2026 is violative of international human rights law standards, particularly the right to fair trial, and sets a profoundly concerning precedent for terrorism -related cases.

This summary (415 words) is drawn automatically from the report's own text: every sentence is Amnesty International's, selected to represent the report, in the order the report gives them. Some context is necessarily lost; read the full report before quoting it.